The field of the disclosure relates generally to additive manufacturing systems and, more particularly, to systems for creating compensated digital representations for use in additive manufacturing processes.
Additive manufacturing systems and processes are used to fabricate precision three-dimensional components from a digital model. Such components are fabricated using an additive process, where successive layers of material are solidified one on top of the other. At least some known additive manufacturing systems use a laser (or similar energy sources) and a series of lenses and mirrors to direct the laser over a powdered material in a pattern provided by a digital model. The laser solidifies the powdered material by sintering or melting the powdered material.
However, as a component cools both during and after the additive manufacturing process, the layers of the component shift relative to their as-built position due to the release of thermal and mechanical stresses and strains within the component. As a result, the built component has distortions that make the component unusable without further processing to provide an acceptable level of geometric precision.
At least some known additive manufacturing processes have attempted to compensate the digital model used to fabricate a component by offsetting the digital model by a fixed amount. However, the accuracy of components fabricated from such compensated digital models is less than desirable, in part because these compensated digital models do not account for local variations between adjacent layers of a component.
Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods that provide more accurate compensated digital models for use in additive manufacturing processes.